The minutes of the last meeting were agreed and signed. Stephen Baggott, Parish Councillor, was welcomed to the meeting.

2. Agreement of Constitution

Time was allowed for everyone to read through the updated Constitution. After some discussion, it was agreed that statement iv. in Section 3. should be moved to Section 2. as it is an aim, not an activity. The new Constitution was then proposed by Nita, seconded by Caroline and agreed by all present.

3. Yearly Reports

Acting Chair – Joe HodgsonThe Library has felt very much under threat during the past year due to cutbacks in the Council budget. FOHL are of the opinion that Honley needs to continue to be a 'Community Supported' Library, rather than being 'Community Run'. Various Consultations have been done during the past year but the outcomes of these will not be published until August/September. A meeting with Jane Brady has been arranged on 9th June to again make our views clear and to gain as much information as possible about future plans.

There are now a number of volunteers working alongside Library Staff on Mondays, Tuesdays and Fridays, which is working well. A self-issue machine has been installed in the Library and volunteers helped with tagging all the books in preparation for its use.

The Events Group has become very skilful and successful in the organisation of events and work very hard in arranging speakers, publicising events and gaining support from local businesses, who have provided prizes for Raffles. Recent events have raised money for our funds through ticket charges and proceeds from the Raffles.

The Development Group have successfully applied for a grant from the Parish Council, which paid for the purchase and installation of a Notice Board outside the Library. More recently, they have been working with a web-site designer, to develop a web-site for FOHL. This will be paid partly through our own funds and partly through a grant from the District Council. The web-site should be up and running within the next few weeks. It will include our logo, which was designed by Caroline's granddaughter, Katie Marsden.

Our focus in the next few months will be to network with other 'Friends' of Libraries groups and also to widen the demographics of FOHL, which could bring in more knowledge and skills eg. how to make the most of Facebook and Twitter to promote Honley Library and forthcoming events.

We would like to pay a special tribute to our first Chair of FOHL, Suzanne Dufton.

Sadly, Suzanne was taken from us before Christmas. All her hard work for the library and the setting up of FOHL has been recognised in a Community Champion Award, presented by Holme Valley Parish Council to her husband Stephen and their daughter Amelia, in a ceremony at Holmfirth Methodist Church on 27th April, which a number of FOHL attended. The Parish Council also presented a Community Award of £50 to FOHL.

We all feel this is such a fitting tribute to Suzanne, whose friendship and guidance we greatly miss.

Library Liaison Officer – Caroline Page

We have had another year of good, supportive relations with Library Services. We are working together with the aim of keeping the Library open and this has involved meetings and setting up a system for volunteers to work in the Library.

On 11th September 2014, the Chief Librarian, Carol Stump, came to the Library to talk to us about the current position of the Library Service. She said that the Library Service is asking for Community Support in all Libraries. She thanked us for our achievements so far and said that we are well on the way regarding Community Support. Honley has an advantage of already working with Kirklees.

Carol stressed that buildings are the responsibility of 'Physical Resources', who have to make their own service cuts, in consultation with Councillors. If the Library building has to close, then we would have to look for an alternative site. She wanted us to continue to provide community support work and to provide volunteers, to give support to a single member of staff.

Good liaison with Library Services was shown in the training sessions, which were set up for volunteers and also in the way that Louise and Val have welcomed us to the jobs, shown us how to do things, kept us interested and put up with our mistakes and weaknesses. As always, we are immensely grateful to Louise and Val for their support when we have events, meetings, book group and when we are working alongside them. THANK YOU VERY MUCH!

We would also like to give a big thank you to Mark for managing issues for the FOHL and the volunteers whenever necessary and for answering all our questions. Mark has also permitted a number of FOHL to be 'Keyholders', which means that we can now hold meetings and events outside of Library opening hours.

A self-issue machine has now been installed in the Library and volunteers havehelped with the necessary tagging of books. They are also giving support to customers with the self-issue machines, working alongside Louise and Val.

On 2nd March 2015, Salma Dad, from Library Services, came to talk to us. The emphasis was on the three types of Library Service which may run in the future, which are: - (1) Town Libraries (2) Community Run Libraries (3) Community Supported Libraries.

Salma said that Honley is most likely to be in the Community Run category. This is not our preferred option as we think it would not work in Honley. Salma also said that we should explore possible options for relocation, if this becomes necessary. This, we consider, would be very difficult.

Although this was good liaison, it was not what FOHL wanted to hear! Further discussions are planned and are very necessary. We have a meeting on 9th June with Jane Brady and Carol Stump, to debate the issues, however much will depend on the results of the Library Consultation, which are due in August/September.

On 7th April, Joe and I attended a Focus Group discussion at Huddersfield Library, organised by Library Services. Members of different Groups in Kirklees were invited to give their opinions about the three options which have been put forward for Library services. I found it encouraging to find that all the participants favoured a Community Supported plan for the future.

Library Services sent us details of a Funding Workshop, which was run by Rural Action Yorkshire, which Joe, Pat and I attended on 15th April. We gained one or two ideas for possible funding sources if we need them in the future.

Other events which are planned include:-

3rd June - a group of Library Volunteers will be attending a 'Thank you' event at Huddersfield Library, which has been organised by Library Services

24th June - Mark and Library Services have arranged a social event at Honley Library for Honley Volunteers, in order to get to know each other and also to discuss and agree two people who will manage the volunteer rota. Thank you to Pat Colling, who has done the rota for the past 6 months and also to Pat T, who stepped in at short notice to do the one for June.

29th June – The Chair and three other members of FOHL have been invited to attend a Network meeting of all 'Friends' of Kirklees Libraries at the Town Hall to share good practice and innovative ideas. Joe will attend, with Margaret W, Nita and Anne.

Summary: We are in a continual good working relationship with Library Services. Nobody knows yet what the funding for Libraries will be in the future but our aim is to keep Library Services managing and involved in the running of Honley Library, with community support.

Grants1. We had a grant of £418.00 from the HV Parish Council in summer 2014 for the cost of the notice board and installation. The Parish Council paid for both directly, to save VAT. None of this money went through our account.2. The District Committee has recently made a grant of £200 towards the cost of our website.3. HV Parish Council again recently gave us a grant of £50 in relation to the Community Champion Award for Suzanne Dufton.Total from Grants £250.00.

We have paid £150 towards the cost of the web-site and are awaiting the invoice for the outstanding balance on completion of the work. Other items purchased are a large hot water flask and two insulated jugs, for use in the provision of refreshments at events and stationery items.

More detailed accounts will be available when the external audit has been completed in the next couple of weeks.

Events Officer – Anne BroadbentWe are delighted to say we have had another great year of successful events with more to come of the same, similar and different! We have introduced a ticket charge since last year and have been very pleased that audience numbers have stayed high.

In June 2014, our 'Summer Stanzas' poetry readaround with music from The Valley Flutes led by Carol Baxter, was attended by over 30 people.

In September we held our very successful and moving WW1 Commemoration Event, planned by our sadly missed Chair Suzanne Dufton. Fifty people attended the event which was led by Peter Marshall from Honley Civic Society, alongside our Acting Chair Joe Hodgson. Researcher Cyril Ford was also a guest.

We heard emotive poems and readings from the audience, while two excellent informative display boards about the war and its impact on the people of Honley, created by Caroline Page, (ably assisted by Mike Page and Joe Hodgson) were unveiled at the event. The displays stayed in the library for some time and were then moved on to Trinity Church, St Mary's Church, Honley High School, Burhouse Court and Enfield Down, spending up to a month in each venue.

A donation was made to the Royal British Legion and accepted by Roy Davey. At the end of the evening 15 year old Sam Teale made time in his busy schedule to give us a moving performance of The Last Post.

In December at our Christmas readaround, we were fortunate to have gifted youngguest poet Theo Ayres reading and songbird Harley Butterworth, who despite a bad throat sang two beautiful songs for us. Over thirty people came along and helped to make it another great evening.

In March at our 'Spring into Poetry' readaround, we had a funny turn in the form of Dorothy Foster, performance poet, who entertained us and had us in stitches with her humorous 'Schooldays Remembered' - we will not forget her bonnet and big bird in a hurry! Once again we had over 30 people in the audience.

In April we had a very successful Coffee Morning here in the library organised by our Jenny Bagworth and Linda Sharpe, assisted by other members of the FOHL team, in aid of the Mayor's Charity, Kirkwood Hospice and raised the princely sum of £155, which was all donated to Kirkwood Hospice. More of those to come we hope.

We are on the threshold of our next event at the library on Monday 8th June at 7.30 p.m. to 9 p.m. which is, 'Formidable Women in Honley's History', a talk by Peter Marshall, well-known and respected local historian from Honley Civic Society. We are looking forward to this very much and do have some tickets still available from the library price £2 including refreshments.

Further down the line, on Tuesday 28th July at 7.15 – 9 p.m. we have our Summer readaround 'Poetry, Verses, Prose', when we will open the floor to audience readings, their own writing or favourite pieces, prose or poetry or of course just to listen and with the usual refreshments including cake.

Even further down the line, on Tuesday 22nd September at 7.30 to 9 p.m. we have widely published, prize winning guest poet Julia Deakin coming to read for us, which is another evening to look forward to. Julia is very keen to support the libraries at this time.

Then in early 2016, we are hoping to welcome Joanne Harris to Honley Library. Joanne is also very keen to show her support.

To round off 2015 we are planning, as I speak, our Christmas readaround with a special touch to round off a year of library events to remember!

We have, as a group, also supported all of the Kirklees events, such as a visit from Rose Condo, Canadian poet, Meredith Town, who gave a talk on Victorian lady cyclists and Pam Cooksey, who gave a talk on the impact of war in the Holme Valley.At this point I would like to give credit to our amazing Events Team, who have all worked their socks off to put into operation the events we have had. I am not naming names as we are a solid team but there is a lot of work goes into all of the events, in which we have tried to promote the library and have been rewarded with high audience numbers and good feedback afterwards. I think we have shown a need for the continued existence of our village library and I have been proud to be called 'Leader' of such a team.

I also want to say a special thank you to Yorkshire Building Society for all theexcellent printing of our posters for each event. And to all the supportive shops andbusinesses in Honley who have donated prizes for our raffles.

Last but not least, a big thank you to our member of staff, Louise Augustus for all the help and support she gives us for all our events and Val MacIntyre, when we are lucky enough to have her here.

Looking back on all of this, I feel amazed and a bit breathless that we have packed so much into both one year and a fairly small library!

As a footnote, our next events meeting is on Monday 15th June at 12 noon at the Gallery Cafe in Honley.

Treasurer – There was no volunteer for the role of Treasurer, therefore Joe agreed that he would continue to do this until someone else came forward. This was proposed by Charles and seconded by Caroline.

Library Liaison Officer – Caroline agreed to take on this responsibility as part of her role as Vice Chair.

These Officers plus Nita Steel, Jenny Bagworth, Margaret Waterworth and Jenny Lockwood will form the Committee for FOHL.

If any other members of FOHL, who were not present at the meeting, wish to become a member of the Committee or take on the role of Treasurer, please contact Joe or Pat T.

5. Any other business

Evening Readers Group – The first meeting was held last week and agreed that future meetings would be on the third Wednesday of each month at 7.00pm at Honley Library.

Honley in Bloom – Honley Business Association, Honley Village Trust and Honley Civic Society will arrange to have the railings outside the library painted before next Saturday and will care for all planters and troughs throughout the village.

Library Volunteers – The rota for volunteers is now on display in the office of the Library. Please fill in your name on the dates and times when you are available. Thank you to Pat Colling for doing the rota for the past 6 months. There will be a 'Social Evening' for volunteers on 24th June from 7.00 – 9.00pm. If each volunteer brings along a food contribution, big or small, that would be great.

Food Bag Volunteers – There is concern that we have only given a couple of bags out since Christmas. Caroline has not heard anything from Trinity Church, regarding her request to distribute the bags from there but will follow this up. It was agreed that a number of volunteers will attend the next FBV meeting, which is at Honley Library on 11th June at 7.00pm, to discuss whether it is worth continuing to provide the service in Honley.

Date of Next Meeting:

Monday 3rd August at 6.00pm at Honley Library

It was agreed that there would be no meeting in July due to the number of people giving apologies because of holidays.